This undated photo provided by Appling County High School shows baseball player Byron Buxton. The Houston Astros have the No. 1 pick in the baseball draft, Monday night, June 4, 2012 in Secaucus, N.J. They hope to get an impact player this time around, with Stanford right-hander Mark Appel, Florida catcher Mike Zunino, LSU righty Kevin Gausman and Georgia high school outfielder Byron Buxton expected to go early in the first round. (AP Photo/Appling County High School)

The major league baseball amateur draft begins in nine days, on June 6, and lasts through June 9. The Twins have the No. 4 overall pick and need pitching.

“Last year, we needed pitching,” said Twins vice president for player personnel Mike Radcliff, who oversees the draft.

But last year, the Twins had the No. 2 overall pick and drafted high school outfielder Byron Buxton.

“At this moment, I’m pretty sure we took what many people thought was something we didn’t need, a center fielder,” Radcliff said. “I think (Buxton’s) off to such a start that people believe he’s going to be a really, really good player.”

That’s a good bet. Buxton, 19, through 48 games at Class A Cedar Rapids is hitting .324 with 11 doubles, five triples and seven home runs and is expected to be promoted to the more accelerated Class A at Fort Myers before long.

But, Radcliff admits, the Twins still need pitching.

“I’m sure we’ll address pitching overall,” he said. “But will it be with the first pick? That’s a little hard to say. We’re going to try to pick who we think is the best guy available when it’s our turn.”

Signing Buxton at No. 2 cost the Twins a $6 million bonus. At No. 4 this year, Major League Baseball has slotted nearly $4 million for that pick’s signing bonus.

There are several elite pitchers available for next week’s draft, and it’s no secret who they are: right-handers Jonathan Gray from Oklahoma, Mark Appel from Stanford and high schooler Kohl Stewart from Houston.

But there also are a couple of power-hitting third basemen — Kris Bryant from San Diego and Colin Moran from North Carolina. It’ll be surprising if the Twins’ top pick isn’t from those five prospects.

“We don’t have an exact name; we’re down to a certain group of names,” Radcliff said. “We’ve got to take the best player. We’ll get a good player to pick at No. 4 and another one at 43.”

The Twins also will have the No. 78 pick.

Look for Kyle Gibson, the Twins’ first-round draft pick in 2009, to be promoted from Triple-A Rochester soon.

The Howard Pulley Panthers, featuring juniors Tyus Jones of Apple Valley and Reid Travis of DeLaSalle, won all five of their games in the Nike series traveling tournament last weekend at the High Performance Academy in Eagan. The Panthers qualified for the Peach Jam tournament July 10-14 in Augusta, Ga.

The Wisconsin (Milwaukee) Playground Elite, featuring junior Rashad Vaughn of Robbinsdale Cooper, finished 1-4 and did not qualify for the Peach Jam.

Chicago’s Mac Irvin Fire’s Jahlil Okafor, the coveted junior prep who has pledged to attend the same college as Jones, hurt an ankle in the first game, limiting his play.

Jones, by the way, recently turned 17.

Former Gopher Seth Rosin of Mounds View, 6 feet 6 and 250 pounds, was named the Class AA Eastern League’s pitcher of the week after winning two games for the Reading Fightin Phils.

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ Matt Niskanen, a former Dallas Star from Virginia, Minn., who played at Minnesota-Duluth, told a story about getting into a fight with Penguins star Sidney Crosby before they were teammates, as reported by the Ottawa Sun via the Fischler Report:

“(Crosby) came up to the draw, stood next to me, and I had no idea what was going on. I wasn’t ready for it. He said, ‘Hey, you ready to go?’ I kind of look at him and said, ‘Are you serious?’ I’m thinking geez, that’s Sidney Crosby. What’s he want with me?

“He’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to go.’ And I said, ‘OK.’

“For some reason, they didn’t drop the puck for a while. I asked him, ‘Are you taking your helmet off or no?’ He’s like, ‘I don’t know, what do you think?’ Then the puck dropped, and we go.

“He didn’t have anything against me or the other way around. It’s just the way it went down. He was trying to create momentum for his team.”

Niskanen said the fight lasted about 20 seconds.

“It’s pretty unanimous that I lost that one,” Niskanen said. “I went for a bomb early in the fight, connected hard … with his helmet … and then I was off balance and he rag-dolled me pretty good. He didn’t hurt me with any punches, but he was throwing me around like I was a little kid.”

DON’T PRINT THAT

Gov. Mark Dayton is still not happy about the Vikings moving a regular-season Metrodome game to London to play the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 29.

“We’ve limited them to three games overseas in these first 15 years (of the 30-year stadium lease),” Dayton said the other day. “Frankly, if they’re going to play them, play them now before we have the new stadium. I told them I’m not putting up this (new) football stadium to watch you play your home games in other countries.”

Dayton did manage to bring the Vikings’ request to play six games overseas down to three games.

The Timberwolves want6-foot-8 Derrick Williams at about 240 pounds if he’s going to play small forward rather than power forward, which is the position Kevin Love plays.

New Timberwolves basketball president Flip Saunders plans to meet with point guard Ricky Rubio this summer, perhaps in Miami.

OVERHEARD

Dayton, on funding for the Vikings’ new stadium: “We’ll be able to sell the bonds without any trouble, and everything’s green light.”

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